Beach Front Cabana

Key Biscayne, Florida

A tiny space with huge style.

This 205 sq. ft. poolside cabana, designed by the Anima Domus Projects Department, is a living, dining, and bedroom space capable of sleeping up to four people at a time.

The client, a South American cabana owner and resident at one of Key Biscayne’s luxury oceanside condo communities, came to Anima Domus with the request to create an atmosphere of casual and comfortable relaxation for her tiny poolside cabana space. She envisioned the cabana as a place for her family and their guests to spend and enjoy time as they would at a weekend getaway retreat: sharing meals, playing card games, watching TV, relaxing and staying over. This meant having to convert 205 square feet into a space that could function as three different types of environments: a dining room, an entertainment/TV area and/or a bedroom.

Taking into account input from the client, project managers at Anima Domus customized a floor plan and produced renderings, layouts and elevations which integrated a dining room, a living room and a bedroom, all in one small space – without compromising aesthetics or functionality. Different design elements were made to work together by utilizing attractive and functional space-saving furniture solutions, thus maximizing the restricted space and allowing for storage.

During the day, the cabana design allows it to be used as a place to host meals, watch TV, or play cards and board games with the creative use of two different CLEI space saving furniture systems. The ‘Ulisse Dining’ CLEI system acts as the cabana’s dining room table, flanked by generous shelving for books, games or accessories. CLEI’s ‘Swing’ system faces the cabana’s TV setup and includes a cozy sofa surrounded by bookcases and ample storage space under the seat cushions. Being that people entering from the surrounding pool and ocean areas use this sofa, it was finished in water-resistant Sunbrella fabric to avoid possible water stains.

At night, the ‘Ulisse Dining’ table can be easily converted into a queen size bed without having to move the table or adjoining shelving system. Additionally, the ‘Swing’ sofa system is effortlessly turned into a queen size bed, simply by removing the sofa cushions and without having to take down items from surrounding shelves. Though the footprint of the cabana is very small, the orientation and distance between the two CLEI space-saving systems allow for freedom of movement, even with both beds in the opened position. Both systems provide additional storage space, which was an essential requirement for the small square footage of the floor plan.